Failure Mode Effects & Criticality Analysis (FMECA)

FMECA is a systematic, proactive method for evaluating a process to identify where and how it might fail and to assess the relative impact of different failures, in order to identify the parts of the process that are most in need of change. FMECA includes review of the following:

Steps in the process

Failure modes (What could go wrong?)

Failure causes (Why would the failure happen?)

Failure effects (What would be the consequences of each failure?)

Team uses FMECA to evaluate processes for possible failures and to prevent them by correcting the processes proactively rather than reacting to adverse events after failures have occurred.

This emphasis on, prevention may reduce risk of harm to both patients and staff. FMECA is particularly useful in evaluating a new process prior to implementation and in assessing the impact of a proposed change to an existing process.